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Intel Rolls Out Raspberry Pi Competitor
Rambo Tribble writes "As detailed by Ars Technica, Intel has introduced the Minnowboard, an SBC touted as more powerful and more open than the Raspberry Pi. At $199, it is also more expensive. Using an Atom processor, the new SBC boasts more capacity and x86-compatibility. 'It's notable that the MinnowBoard is an open hardware platform, a distinction that Arduino and BeagleBone can claim but Raspberry Pi cannot. Users could create their own MinnowBoards by buying the items on the bill of materials—all the design information is published, and CircuitCo chose components that can be purchased individually rather than in the bulk quantities hardware manufacturers are accustomed to, Anders said. Users can also buy a pre-made MinnowBoard and make customizations or create their own accessory boards to expand its capability. And being an open hardware platform means that the source code of (almost) all the software required to run the platform is open.'" Update: 09/20 22:31 GMT by T : Look soon for a video introduction to the MinnowBoard, and — hopefully not too long from now — a visit to their Dallas-area production facility.
Why is this thing priced like a modern board when it has all out of date components on it? Wake me up when they do the Bay Trail version or slash $100 off of the asking price.
I read the internet for the articles.
yeah it certainly isn't a raspberry pi competitor. why buy this when you can buy a netbook for almost the same price??
and check this out, 8 gpio pins. whee... no idea if any da/ad pins.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
They started with a project board,
using Intel's tiny chip.
They're trying to do to the Raspberry Pi what Microsoft did to the netbook, and for the same reasons.
It's notable that the MinnowBoard is an open hardware platform, a distinction that Arduino and BeagleBone can claim but Raspberry Pi cannot.
There's nothing exotic about a Pi. It could be recreated with sufficient motivation. The schematics are available so it wouldn't be a major challenge to reproduce them and generate a compatible board layout.
Also, the average homebrew builder targeted by these products isn't going to have the resources to assemble a board with high density surface mount packages so the value of being able to reproduce them is dubious. At $35 it is far cheaper to buy an assembled Pi and not have to worry about the time involved in acquiring parts, assembly, and verification. Even for those that have the tools to build one it would be a phenomenal waste of time at that price point. If your production volume is high enough to beat $35 then you may as well do a custom design anyway that has exactly the hardware and interfaces you need.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
The most likely use cases today aren't hobbyist applications but industrial uses, Anders said. "The BeagleBone is a very small, low-power device, and it's targeted for some very specific applications for hobbying. You know, developing small proof-of-concept designs," Anders said. "Our initial offer for the MinnowBoard is actually more targeted toward industrial automation, industrial controls. What you'll find is a lot of manufacturers, companies creating products, if they want to create an x86 design, they have to buy a third-party reference platform which is closed. They have to buy large software support packages, support contracts, and they generally don't get the right to use the existing design as it is. They have to buy additional licenses and things to create the product."
In other words, this is aimed at a completely different market than the ones looking for a raspberry pi or a beaglebone. From Rpi's own FAQ: "We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming." David Anders says it may reach price point similar to the Rpi or Beaglebone in the near future, but there's no promises. I know this sounds like nitpicking, but framing the discussion improperly with a misleading title is something Slashdot desperately needs to stop.
yeah it certainly isn't a raspberry pi competitor. why buy this when you can buy a netbook for almost the same price??
Also, this thing is huge. Several times the size of a Raspberry Pi. It appears to require a wall wart, whereas a RPI can be powered from USB.
and check this out, 8 gpio pins. whee... no idea if any da/ad pins.
... and none of the GPIO pins can do hardware PWM. So this board is not much use for robotics.
So, do you guys have multiple Beagle Boards, Beagle Bones, Ras Pi's, and other sitting on your bench right now? And you have experience using them? I do.
You haven't looked closely at the Minnow. The I/O is much easier to use and much richer than you find on a 'bone or a raspi. The CPU has more horsepower, and yon don't have porting headaches to get reasonable things running on it. $200 seems like a good value to me. You can't compare a raspi to a minnow until you try to hook up a CAN bus and a camera and start doing vision processing and motor control like you need for a robotics application. The pi will be straining. I have hopes for the minnow.
First, post your benchmarks, and BOM for all the add-on you needed to make it work. Then you can grouse about the price.
I have nothing Beagle (too expensive), but I have lots of Pis, both on my desk and out in the field doing productive work.
I'd like to jump in and recommend trying out the Beaglebone Black. At $45, it's not much more than the Pi, and feels like what the Raspberry Pi should have been. It's much more stable (and uses less power!), has on-chip ethernet (avoiding horrible USB related problems that the Pi has), isn't plagued with USB issues and generally has better specs. Interfacing stuff to the Beaglebone is a dream, compared to the Pi, with more hardware supported modes and real analog pins.
Since finding the Beaglebone and the Black, my flaky old Pis get used much less often. Admittedly, I'm using these as embedded controllers for instruments and not as a media center. I'm not sure how the Black does in that area.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.